2017-09-09 - On Mastery
The dojo has been cleaned up immaculately since its owner got back. Dusted, books straightened, so forth. A wooden man is in a corner, and looks to unsurprisingly have seen better days. In the opposite corner is a banana punching bag, the sort common in kickboxing gyms. Also, there is a minor freeweight area. Past that, it is open space as proper to a traditional martial arts gym. It's owner is in the far side of the gym knelt on a small persian style rug with a tea set in the middle. He's brewing a fresh pot, relaxing after the fight no doubt. Batwing had changed back into street clothing after joining in with Richard and Leah's jog, and so he enters the dojo in a sweatshirt and jeans. It felt less silly and brought up less questions than standing there in his full bat-kid regalia. "Dragon-sifu," he says from the door. "May I enter?" he asks. Richard Dragon is checking on the state of his fresh pot of some sort of exotic home blend when Damian announces, and arches a single burgundy brow at the door. He replies,"Of course! Come in, just please take off your shoes." Richard sprinkles something red into the pot, then pours what's obviously juice from a freshly obliterated lemon and some honey into it thereafter. "Just making some cayenne tea. Great for the sinuses, and tastes amazing too. Lady down at the island showed me a recipe for it." Damian kicks off his shoes and carefully places them by the door before he enters. "Cayenne tea, I can't say I've tried it but if you say it's good," he says simply as he makes his way to where Dragon sits. The boy moves differently than when Dragon would have first seen him in Madripoor. He was still trained to be a killer, but something in the way he moved suggested there was some softening of those instincts. Likely the work of the Bat. Damian, waits for an invitation to sit down. Richard Dragon gives the invitation with a wave of his hand. After a few beats he'd raise the pot, gripping it with a folded silk kerchief he'd lain near it. Taking a whiff, he'd pour two small glasses. Sliding one to either, he inquires,"So what brings you by? I take it you're doing well for yourself these days. It has been a while." Damian takes the tea with a incline of his head and when the cup is lifted it is properly examined. "A very fine set," he compliments of the cup, even if it's untrue. That was the ritual anyhow. Then he answers the question. "I am doing well thank you, besides my night work I am interning at Wayne Enterprises and taking classes at Gotham University," he pauses then before continuing on looking like a man rushing headlong into something he was dreading. "Though I was hoping to ask you something, which I suppose you must get a lot." He takes a sip of his tea buying a little time for himself. The tea set looks antique, though whether it actually is is another story. As for the tea, it is spicy as the name suggests though the honey and lemon give it a distinct flavor not dissimilar to ginger. Richard nods at Damian's explanation, taking a moment to sip at his own before replying in a slightly disappointed tone,"Not as often as you'd think, I promise." Damian makes a surprised noise as the tea hits his taste buds. It was good. He lowers the cup and says "If that's so, then people are idiots," Damian is nervous but he's still Damian. He flinches a little at his impertinence and then sets his cup down to get to his point. Damian is already sitting on his knees and now he bows at the waist as he gets to his point, "I've come to ask you to train me sifu." Richard Dragon smiles as he sets his cup down at the request, exhaling mildly. As a man of traditions, Dragon is still fairly laid back. The display surprises him for a moment. Smiling easily then at the formality, Richard replies,"I'd be honored, though you do seem rather competent already from what I've seen." Damian chances raising his head when his offer is accepted and he can't help but smile at Dragon's appraisal. It vanishes quickly replaced by a more serious expression he was taught was appropriate for talking to a master. "Thank you, but the graveyards are full of competent fighters, I need to be the best," he says shifting his shoulders back while trying to look confident and humble all at once. Richard Dragon becomes serious to match Damian's shift in demeanor, his hands coming to rest on his knees,"They are also full of people who tried to prove themselves the best. I know some of your friends and family, since we're alone here. Do you know a woman who calls herself Lady Shiva? The other Bats have met her a couple times, I've heard." Damian takes the rebuke of his thinking stoically. Though the way Damian's ice blue eyes seem determined he's not put off by the thought of death. When asked about Shiva he nods. "I've heard of her, in the League and with my family but we've never met," he says. Richard Dragon exhales nasally as his thoughts drift back over the years, organizing himself mentally for his explanation for the question. After his moment of nostalgia, he delivers it,"She is an old friend of mine from way back, you see. Was, rather. Her skill has always been magnificent, and there was a time we did work together. Good work, in fact. She has been an assassin for as long as I've known her, which is probably twenty years or so. But back then, I think there was a time she could have been something else. When she was working with my friend Ben and I, she wouldn't kill." Damian listens to the story. "Hm, I was never told this part of her story, just that she was a peerless martial artist and a peerless killer," that latter was likely the League's version of events. Then comes another question, "And what made her break from that rule?" he asks. "Not killing. I mean." Richard Dragon takes a sip from his cup as he considers that obvious question. When the moment passes, he answers,"I honestly don't know her side of it, because it was a strange turn of events. I had been down for a while. I was way down, I'd thought my best friend was dead at the time and was pretty much trying to drink myself to death. I wasn't in a good place when she found me again. Mentally, I mean. She brought me to an underground fighting competition and signed me up. I ended up wasting the next several years there, pounding some into submission and beating others to death. Why she brought me there of all places, I never knew. But it gave me two insights. One, I think I almost understand her perspective on killing masters. Almost. Two, I know intimately why it's actually a waste." Damian leans forward as he listens only pausing a moment to take a sip of his tea. His brows raise, surprised, at the news Dragon had killed, and in a fighting pit at that. Though what really interests him is the lessons he learned. "Why do you think she does it, and why is it a waste?" he asks. Richard Dragon looks down as he carefully chooses his words, burgundy brows knitting just before her starts,"She thinks that only when one's life is on the line can she actually achieve the full experience and breadth of a master's ability. Where it is a waste lies in the flaw of this logic. That master's ability is the sum of generations of failures and victories of masters who came before him, and because of her thinking may end with her." Damian's brows knit as he thinks that through. He lifts his tea cup. "Hmm. So you're saying she's only effectively drinking a sip from the cup then breaking it so it cannot be filled again, where mastery is more than just what you learn from one man, but is a thing on it's own. Something living through each generation?" he frowns at that thought. He had subscribed to much the same view as Shiva apparently held. Richard Dragon makes a finger pistol at Damian before taking another sip. As he sets it back,"Right in one. I hope you understand why I've shared this with you?" Damian blinks at the finger pistol. Dragon did not quite fit Damian's experience with renowned masters. His eyes brighten at the praise and his lips threaten a smile but then it's gone as he's forced to answer, "No. I don't understand, I only suspect it has to do with me saying I want to be the best." Richard Dragon isn't like other masters, not being one to take himself too seriously. He clears his throat before proceeding,"Yes, but more than that. I know what the League is, and a bit of what they think. I want you to better understand why they are wrong. Their destruction doesn't end just with killing, it goes further than that. Anyone who thinks they can prove themselves right or the best by killing anyone who might prove them wrong or one day be better...well, isn't that really a form of cowardice?" Richard Dragon grins as he gets a rise out of the youth with that. He lets him pace for a long moment, giving him his piece as he savors his tea before replying evenly,"Defeating and killing are not the same. Might does not make right. If it did, either there would be no tyrants or society would never have outgrown monarchies. A true master can at times defeat an enemy without throwing a blow. Whether by setting them against another enemy, or by dispelling the reason is an enemy in the first place." Damian had heard some of this before from his father and as much as he tried to live by it he was constantly frustrated by it. "True, defeat and killing isn't the same thing, but if they're dead they don't come back," a pause. "Usually anyhow. As to the rest, turning an enemy on another enemy or making them no longer an enemy. It seems risky, what if the enemies figure it out and unite and what if the enemy changes their mind?" he asks. "And for that matter how do you make an enemy not be an enemy without giving something up? Or are we to intimidate them into fearing to rise up against us?" Richard Dragon raises a brow as he considers Damian's points, or at least makes a show of it for the lad, then replies,"Of course it's risky. Wouldn't life be boring without risk? How is a game a game without an element of risk? How do you get better at anything without risk? As for intimidation, that certainly has it's usefulness. Success garners reputation, and nothing is so intimidating as a successful reputation." Damian frowns crossing his arms as he turns back from his pacing to look at Dragon. "So we're supposed to leave ourselves open to attack because it's more fun?" he asks. Though he does nod at the last part. "That makes sense. Like your reputation for example. I suspect few people choose to challenge you. Demonic samurai excepted of course." He offers a small smile there. Richard Dragon chuckles at the bit about the demon,"Yeah, not many bother me anymore who know me. I suppose maybe I offered a bad explanation about the first part, but I think you get why risk is important. Nearly anyone can be shown why they are wrong. By understanding the world and others, we can master it and ourselves. This is part of being a true master, understanding not only yourself but that which is around you. If you can accomplish that, then you can grasp the motivations of others. That is how you set your adversaries against each other and defeat them without ever engaging them yourself." Another frown claims Damian's features. It was getting to be a habit. He sinks down to sit cross legged in front of Dragon. "That's not something I was ever taught, understanding my enemies, even here in Gotham it only goes so far, understand what they fear and use it," Damian says though his version of his father's teachings may be coloured by his past experiences. "How do you even begin to do that?" he asks with a touch of frustration in his voice. Richard Dragon rises from his seated posture to go to a nearby bookshelf at his question, and grabs a few volumes,"Like this..." With that, Richard returns to set them down beside the tea set,"Learning not only how to think critically, but how others think." Among the books are the I Ching, The Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes, another on Taoism, and a biography of Jean Paul Sartre. He apparently has a veritable library on philosophy. Damian takes a look at the books laid out in front of him. There's a snarky comment just dying to get out of him no doubt, but he swallows it down and nods. "So, then I take it this my first lesson?" he asks hopefully. Richard Dragon smirks at Damian, having seen the familiar signs of witheld commentary. He then squints and considers before replying,"No. I can leave this to Bruce, he's as big a nerd as I am for this sort of thing. As for you, it'll be a course on wing chun and aikido to start off. You know how to dish it out, I'm curious to see how well you avoid it." The ground floor of the Dojo is a single room, mostly lightly matted and showing a simple oriental design several racks of various weapons line the walls, while most of the floor is left empty, in one corner of the room however is a small floor tray, set up to allow the preparation of green tea. The second floor is effectively the living area, it looks as though it's been converted to this function rather than designed for it. The room is broken into three parts, a simple bathroom, a kitchen containing several cupboards counters, an oven and a fridge freezer, and a bedroom which also functions as a living area, the room is spartan a simple steel spring bed in one corner of the room, a wooden chair at its foot rests next to a chest of draws upon which is a small portable radio, against the other wall, and next to the door is a fair size bookcase, which seems to be the most used item of furniture, filled with books on almost every subject the only real sign of an actual interest in philosophy the shelves holding a number of works from both eastern and western philosophers of many schools. Damian nods, though he scans the titles of the books with a glance committing them to memory. The mention of his father being a nerd, earns a snort of amusement. "That's the first time I've heard him called that," he says with a smile. "I think I can avoid things pretty well, but then, that's for you to judge, sifu. When do we begin?" Richard Dragon nods in agreement. He would see for himself. He'd seen how he moves, and the underlying aggression of his tactics. From there he'd formed his judgment. He's been wrong before, but it isn't often in his experience thus far. He replies,"In two days. I'll send over the agreement contract first thing in the morning." Damian blinks. "Contract?" he asks. That takes him by surprise. "What sort of contract?" there is a notes of confusion and suspicion in his tone. Richard Dragon nods yet again at Damian before raising a hand in emphasis,"I don't give formal instruction for free, and I do have conditions. Don't worry, I'm not expensive." Damian gives a little ah, of understanding and smiles. "Don't worry, I think I can manage," he says before he moves to stand and bow. "Then I will look forward to receiving the contract tomorrow and the day after I will be here to begin my training."